Parent Perspective: A Mother’s Longing for Squeaky Clean Fun

My husband and I discovered early on in our tenure as parents that our kids were very sensitive to visual imagery and loud sounds.  This made trips to the movie theater practically non-existent and only possible with the guidance of the outstandingly detailed reviews posted at http://www.commonsensemedia.org– a real sanity saver for parents with kids like mine.

Last summer, the kids and I decided to try Alvin & the Chipmunks and we set out for the theater on a hot summer afternoon.  I expected some bathroom behavior and ridiculousness, but was not prepared for an homage to Hollywood and rap culture or the outright fright our youngest sensed from the main human character, Ian (David Cross).  When she requested we leave the theater early I was happy to oblige.

A couple of weeks ago we were invited by some friends to see Alvin & the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel.  I asked my friend if she was as disappointed by the first remake as I was.  She replied “I don’t understand why they have to modernize everything.”  I said “Is it modernize or sexualize?”  We both sighed.

Nevertheless, our oldest and I decided to see The Squeakquel while our youngest opted out.  I was prepared for the experience—prepared to be disappointed by the movie and just enjoy the company of good friends.  The movie lived up to my lowered expectations especially in the portrayal of the Seville family matriarch, Aunt Jackie (Kathryn Joosten.)

Aunt Jackie’s physical appearance is gender neutral (baseball cap, t-shirt and lack of make up or jewelry) and she’s using a wheelchair but willingly shows up at the airport to caretake the Chipmunks in a grandmotherly fashion.  Her portrayal made me assume some young male Hollywood director and/or producer and/or writer created a disposable woman good enough to step in and babysit the Chipmunks but not worth the effort to make as attractive as the other humans.  The juxtaposition of Aunt Jackie’s appearance next to all the other human characters was stark.   I kept these thoughts to myself—after all, I was in a darkened movie theater.

But when Chipmunk antics lead Aunt Jackie to the hospital, Alvin tells Dave she isn’t at the house because she is “practicing her pole dancing.”

Pardon?!  When I heard the pole dancing line my brain had to reconfirm that I was indeed at a show intended for children ages 10 and under—released just two days before Christmas (high family season.)  Of course many adults in the theater were chuckling, but I couldn’t help but wonder how many children would later ask their parents “What is pole dancing?”  I had to admit, that in reality, it would take a pretty strong memory for a child to remember that line by the end of the movie.  And there were numerous other audacious lines kids could take away.

So, what then, once the Squeakquel is released to DVD and some young children have the opportunity to watch the movie over and over, memorizing it line by line?  I can only imagine the discussions that will ensue—hopefully with parents, but, more likely, with siblings, classmates and playmates.

And how did Boomer grandmothers in the audience feel when seeing Aunt Jackie’s portrayal as less capable than her constantly gaming, slacker nephew/grandson Toby (Zachary Levi)?

The movie ended and as the credits rolled I noticed that Betty Thomas was the director—Betty Thomas, Hollywood veteran actress past her Hollywood prime.  Obviously, I don’t know Betty personally but when I watched her performance as Lucy Bates in Hill Street Blues, I sure felt like I did.  That role, as a forerunner portraying a woman in a traditionally male occupation, informed me and my generation that girls could grow up to pursue any occupation and bring to those occupations our feminine perspective.

My disappointment was now staggering—if “Betty Thomas, Director” couldn’t marshal the authority and leadership to have the pole dancing line rewritten to any of a million other throw away lines, who could?

It’s possible that Betty has experienced the rampant lookism and ageism many aging Hollywood actresses experience—maybe they even drove her into directing.   Recent pictures of Thomas show that she’s not into Hollywood glitz and make-up (neither was her character Bates) so perhaps Aunt Jackie’s appearance reflects that of a woman who has accepted the aging process. Since I’m not an avid user of makeup and jewelry I can accept Aunt Jackie’s physical appearance, but I’d still like to believe Betty could have encouraged Aunt Jackie to be portrayed as effectively able-bodied, even if the plot required an accident that sent her to the hospital.

These changes would have incurred minimal production costs but added loads of character.

I’m longing for a movie with good clean family fun and lack of fearful imagery to appear in theaters more than once every two years.  And while it would great if there was someone in Hollywood who makes it their business to consider creating age appropriate fare for our children and youth to view on the big screen—like in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl and Charlotte’s Web– I’m not holding my breath for that to happen.

I realize that my disappointments are not widely shared in our youth- oriented, sexualized culture and these incidents were simply de rigueur.  So while parents like me wait for that next G-rated movie to be released, we can consider spending our entertainment dollars on something I just heard about–the ClearPlay DVD player and subscription service. According to the ClearPlay website “The ClearPlay DVD player seamlessly skips and mutes content based on 12 categories that you can set. ClearPlay Filters are hand-crafted by at team of Filter Developers who watch the movie and masterfully select where the player will remove content.”  ClearPlay may not filter out ageism and lookism but for sexual themes, violence and language it’s the best solution I’ve heard of so far and the popcorn at home won’t cost seven bucks!